Support Your RODE Wireless Go II in the Field: ZGCINE ZG-R30 Charge Case

It’s one of the most exciting aspects of mobile production. The pro-sumer audio market is rapidly improving, the tech is getting better, and prices are falling. As we get better microphones though, we also want to see better growth for accessories. It seems silly to mention, but it matters if we have good options for cases and chargers. A good wireless mic system all on its own might be more challenging to use if we don’t have gear to support those products.

The RODE Wireless Go II are making enough of an impact however, it’s encouraging to see solutions like this third part charge case from ZGCine.
RODE’s solution is excellent, and these little mics have largely taken over most of my YouTube and podcast production. The included pouch in the box though doesn’t deliver much peace of mind for protecting these mics. This is doubly troublesome if you use RODE’s magnetic mounts. The magnets snap together aggressively enough they can crack the magnets.

Soon after the Go II launch, I invested in a hard case to better store the mics and keep them from snapping together. It also gave me a slightly larger sleeve for cables and accessories.

The RODE mics and receiver have solid battery life, and it’s not difficult running for hours when out in the field. One reason why professional gear uses swappable batteries though, if you do start to run low, you can quickly pop out some AA’s and get back into shooting fast. If you run the battery low on a rechargeable transmitter, it’s a little harder to charge it back up WHILE you’re shooting.

The Go II are really fun for field work, but you do have that little gremlin in the back of your head when it comes to power. If I need to charge them up in the field, I’ve got to charge three discrete gadgets, and most of my portable batteries only have two USB ports.

Enter ZGCINE…

The ZGCINE Charge Case is exactly what it’s named. It’s a battery case built specifically to store and charge the RODE Wireless GO II system.
The plastic hard case has a magnetic latch to keep the lid closed. It doesn’t take much effort to pop the lid open though, so it’s not a case you’d want bouncing around loose in a larger camera bag. Find it a little pocket to secure it.

The build quality seems durable enough, but I would also recommend some caution with the hinge. There’s a tiny bit of plastic flex when you push the lid after opening. You can hear a slight plastic creaking sound coming from the rear wall under the hinge.

Internally there’s a trio of docks, each with a USB-C plug, built specifically for the RODE system. The cavities are JUST deep enough to keep each piece secure inside, but it’s still easy to pop them in and out. You don’t feel like you have to apply any damaging pressure, and there’s enough room on each dock to keep using the magnetic mount adapters on the RODE body clips.

The placement on each USB plug matters, as there’s slightly different positioning on the receiver compared to the transmitters, but the case has each slot labeled. Again, inserting should be near effortless, so meeting any resistance means you probably have the unit lined up with the wrong slot.

There’s enough battery capacity in the case to charge the entire RODE trio three times. Given that you can easily run the mics and receiver for almost seven hours on a single charge, you could easily work in the field for days without any additional support gear.

There is an additional USB-A port on the back of the case, to help you top off a phone, but it’s not one I would use often. It’s nice to have in an emergency, and you have no other way to charge a phone. The internal capacity of the case is 3400mAh, which is a fair bit smaller than most phone batteries these days. You probably won’t get a full charge for a modern phone, and then you’ll also be out of power for your mics.

The case doesn’t provide any storage for accessories, so mics and cables will need to be packed separately.

The main concern I have with the ZGCINE is the power discharge when the mics are fully charged.

Plugging the RODEs into the case, and letting them top off, I left them in the case overnight. The ZGCINE showed roughly 75% battery on the front light monitor. Waking up the next morning, the ZGCINE light flashed at 25%, and the mics no longer showed they were connected to power.

This introduces one small kink in the use of a gadget like this. You’d probably want to store your mics overnight in another case or pouch, and use the ZGCINE to charge throughout the day.

It’s incredibly easy to find a power bank near this price with a lot more capacity.

It’s a challenge to find power banks that can triple charge gadgets near this price. Working quickly in the field, it might be annoying dealing with individual cables for each piece on a traditional portable battery.

Ultimately, I think this succeeds in the mission of supporting field audio. You have a hard case that can protect your mics and charge them out in the field. It’s a handy travel solution to quickly pack and carry when you need to move from location to location. The concern is trickle drain when the mics are fully charged.